Commercially available pet foods, e.g., cat food, include compositions specially formulated to address many different nutritional needs. These include, for example, formulations designed for different breed types, sizes and body conditions. They also include formulations designed to address the nutritional needs of animals in the different stages of their life cycle. Despite the availability of such pet food formulations, however, there is a need to develop formulations and methods to address other aspects of an animal's health.
Pets are constantly exposed to pathogens. Failure to respond to those pathogens may result in chronic illness and death. Response to pathogens may be inhibited by an animal's diet, preventing an adequate immune response. Thus compositions and methods are needed to enhance an animal's immune response against challenges by pathogens.
The incidence of many infectious diseases in cats has been reduced greatly through the use of vaccines. Vaccines are not 100% effective, as some cats vaccinated against a particular disease will not be immunized against that disease. Thus there is a need to develop compositions and methods to increase the efficacy of vaccines, and to enhance a feline's immune response when challenged with an antigen.